CBD & South East Light Rail

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boronia
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by boronia »

Earlier today I had to go into the city from Kensington by tram, so I got the stopwatch out to do some timings.

Dwells: ES Marks- 15; Moore Park- 15; S Hills- 17; Chalmers St- 18; Haymarket- 25 +25 waiting for T light; Chinatown- 30 (inc wait for lights); Town Hall- 20 + 10 for lights.

Traffic lights: extremely good most of the way, T coming up well in advance. Fails at Lang Rd- 15; Dowling St- 12; Pitt St- 5; Haymarket- 25 (bus got priority); Park St- 10.

Despite this, tram was 4 minutes behind table at QVB where I got off. Most of the other services I checked on Next There were showing similar delays today. It would seem that 31 minutes is not yet realistic.

Coming back, Pitt St lights cost 60 seconds, Surry Hills lost 10, Lang Rd 40 seconds.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Merc1107 »

At deserted stations in Perth (on heavy rail mind you), a train will barely have stopped before "DOORS CLOSING!" sounds and the train immediately departs. If you aren't already at a door with the button "preselected", as it were, too bad!
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by tonyp »

Merc1107 wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 4:35 pm At deserted stations in Perth (on heavy rail mind you), a train will barely have stopped before "DOORS CLOSING!" sounds and the train immediately departs. If you aren't already at a door with the button "preselected", as it were, too bad!
In Perth the public transport really moves along, European style. Except for the metro, the concept hasn't really caught on in Sydney. It wasn't like that back in the days of the trams. The slowing down came with government buses and double decker trains.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by boronia »

It's quite noticeable in Sydney that many people don't even bother to get out of their seats until the tram/train actually stops. Need more motivation here. I think Brisbane also has "pre-selectable" door buttons.
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Linto63
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Linto63 »

tonyp wrote: The slowing down came with government buses and double decker trains.
And other factors such as the recognition that older people cannot move as quickly and standing up while the tram is moving isn't an option.
boronia wrote: I think Brisbane also has "pre-selectable" door buttons.
Yes, Brisbane's trains have pre-selectable doors, the set and forget function is a much better option than only being able to depress once the doors have been released. The awful buttons on the CAFS that don't have enough travel to make one confident that it has been depressed successfully don't help.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by tonyp »

Linto63 wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 5:33 pm And other factors such as the recognition that older people cannot move as quickly and standing up while the tram is moving isn't an option.
Standing in a tram has never been a problem because it's electric. The slowing down that came with the buses was because of the gearbox jerks accompanying acceleration and deceleration, making it very uncomfortable for standees.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by boronia »

Poor driving skills cause more passenger discomfort than mechanical characteristics in buses.
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Linto63
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Linto63 »

tonyp wrote: Standing in a tram has never been a problem because it's electric.
And trams don't have to make emergency stops?
boronia wrote: Poor driving skills cause more passenger discomfort than mechanical characteristics in buses.
Been on a few electric buses where the ride was jerky, as you said is more down to the individual driver.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Swift »

This all stems from Sydney thinking it's the ants pants and the complacency that results. The other cities actually want to do things better.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

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boronia wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 3:25 pm Earlier today I had to go into the city from Kensington by tram, so I got the stopwatch out to do some timings.

Dwells: ES Marks- 15; Moore Park- 15; S Hills- 17; Chalmers St- 18; Haymarket- 25 +25 waiting for T light; Chinatown- 30 (inc wait for lights); Town Hall- 20 + 10 for lights.

Traffic lights: extremely good most of the way, T coming up well in advance. Fails at Lang Rd- 15; Dowling St- 12; Pitt St- 5; Haymarket- 25 (bus got priority); Park St- 10.

Despite this, tram was 4 minutes behind table at QVB where I got off. Most of the other services I checked on Next There were showing similar delays today. It would seem that 31 minutes is not yet realistic.

Coming back, Pitt St lights cost 60 seconds, Surry Hills lost 10, Lang Rd 40 seconds.
I noticed again yesterday that most L3 trips were predicting 35-37 minute running times well in advance of the service actually running. Leaving Kingsford on time, but arriving CQ 4-6 minutes late. Intermediate stops were sequentially later.

So even in quiet times, this 31 minute timetable is unachievable? Just smoke and mirrors to make the ministers look good?
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Fleet Lists »

Would the minister be worrying about that now that he has resigned?
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Qantas94Heavy
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Qantas94Heavy »

Real time apps like TripView consistently predict that the services will run late, but they'll actually arrive on time about half the time, even prior to the most recent timetable change. I wouldn't put too much weight on those predictions.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Qantas94Heavy »

Well that was short lived. With the return to the weekday timetable they're back to 33.5 minutes each way.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by matthewg »

Qantas94Heavy wrote: Mon Oct 04, 2021 9:56 pm Real time apps like TripView consistently predict that the services will run late.
The predictions would be based on historic running times for the sections involved. With a change of sectional running times, it will take a while for predictions to zero in on the new reality.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Linto63 »

Two low loaders with trams under tauplins at the entrance to Randwick depot today.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

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Another 2 day shutdown in the CBD section for "essential maintenance" next weekend.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

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The shut down today seem to mainly involve pavement and road works along the southern section of George St. More ugly poles are being installed at intersections to allow relocation of pedestrian lights closer to the tracks. I don't know why these lights are needed because pedestrians ignore them unless they actually look to see if there is a tram coming.

Tram-wise, there was a group of workmen welding tracks at the George/Hay Sts H crossing, and another team adjusting points at Circular Quay.

As compensation, Opal was turned off along both routes.

I needed to get to CQ early this afternoon, so decided it would be easier to catch the L94. However, when the bus got to Liverpool St, everybody was turfed off, "as far as we go" (due to a protest march along Elizabeth St). A temporary terminus had been set up in Castlereagh St behind the courthouse.
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Jurassic_Joke
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Jurassic_Joke »

Wait so we now get free rides on CSELR if there’s trackwork of any kind? That’s neat!
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Passenger 57 »

Would the government or the operator be taking the financial hit for that?
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by boronia »

The government collects the fares, so it loses the income.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Passenger 57 »

Surely, fare collection would be subject to various requirements in the contract. I can't see why the operator would forgo fare collection unless they were more concerned with meeting some other KPI.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by boronia »

In individual buses, maybe. Some railway stations appear to have the capacity to turn off individual readers or a whole station. How much control would Transdev have over the readers on LR platforms?

It was amusing that TSA drivers were recently threatening to turn off the readers in their buses on the assumption it would hurt the company.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Linto63 »

boronia wrote: How much control would Transdev have over the readers on LR platforms?
As the infrastructure operator, they would have the ability to switch off from the operations centre.
boronia wrote: It was amusing that TSA drivers were recently threatening to turn off the readers in their buses on the assumption it would hurt the company.
While revenues don't go to the operator, there are likely to be clauses in the contract allowing TfNSW to penalise the operator for not managing its industrial relations, so it may end up hurting the company.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Swift »

Linto63 wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:02 pm
boronia wrote: It was amusing that TSA drivers were recently threatening to turn off the readers in their buses on the assumption it would hurt the company.
While revenues don't go to the operator, there are likely to be clauses in the contract allowing TfNSW to penalise the operator for not managing its industrial relations, so it may end up hurting the company.
So it's like pulling a lever with a bunch of linkages and relays lol.
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Re: CBD & South East Light Rail

Post by Fleet Lists »

I cant see the relevance of that.
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